I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Monday, March 28, 2016

The Myth Of The Oppressed European Muslims

The Pernicious Myth Of The Oppressed
European Muslim. Pope Francis kisses the foot of a man during the foot-washing
ritual at a refugee center near Rome on Thursday. The pontiff washed and kissed
the feet of Muslim, Orthodox, Hindu and Catholic refugees, declaring them
children of the same God, in a gesture of welcome and brotherhood at a time
when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment has spiked following the Brussels
attacks.

Multiculturalism: A narrative popularized by liberal pols and pundits is
that the Belgian and French terrorists were mistreated and alienated by the
native population, and that’s why they lashed out in violence. It’s a
pernicious lie.

A former Obama official summed up this
pathetic excuse-making for mass murder on Wednesday during an appearance on
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “These communities, especially in Brussels . . . are
looked down upon because of their religion,” claimed a former deputy assistant
secretary of defense, Evelyn Farkas. “The whole mindset in Europe needs to
shift in order to give these people equal opportunity, and frankly, respect.”

Added Farkas: “These communities do not
feel sufficiently respected and accepted within many of these European
countries. And even if you have trouble assimilating them, you have to give
them equal opportunity to make a living. A lot of these young men didn’t have
many opportunities.”

Dr. Evelyn Farkas.

This is pure mythology. Farkas and
other terrorist apologists need to put down the violins and do some basic
research. Fact is, Belgium’s government has been extremely generous toward its
Muslim population. Most of its welfare goes to Muslims, and it even subsidizes
their mosques and imams.

Many of these young Muslim men who supposedly
can’t find gainful employment don’t want to work. Why would they, when welfare
checks are normally 70% to 80% of their income?

Not having a job is a conscious
decision. Many see it as their religious duty not to make any economic
contribution to the “kaffir” state hosting them. By not holding regular jobs,
they have time to make “hijrah” to Syria, where they can train for jihad and
return with other “skills” like manufacturing nail bombs in safe houses
unmolested by authorities (who agree not to make raids at night out of respect
for Muslim neighborhoods).

Far from being mistreated, Belgian
Muslims are one of the most pampered minorities in Western history.

Lest it offend its burgeoning Muslim
population, Belgium has “de-Christianized” its Christian holidays. The holiday
previously known as All Saints Day is now referred to as Autumn Leave,
Christmas Vacation is now Winter Vacation, Lenten Vacation is now Rest and
Relaxation Leave and Easter is now Spring Vacation.

Meantime, it’s allowing the construction
of massive mosques, including one with a 60-foot minaret that will
automatically light up during calls to prayer. Authorities even let Muslim
hate-preachers sermonize at the subway stations in Brussels, including one
known to approach young Muslims and persuade them to go and fight in Syria.

Heavily subsidized by Belgium’s
overgenerous welfare system, North African immigrants have little incentive to
integrate. Instead they turn inward, creating Islamic no-go zones divorced from
and hostile to Western society.

Sharia4Belgium is one of most popular youth organizations in the
country. Its young Muslim bullies go around harassing non-Muslims to comply
with Sharia law on the street, banning the smoking of cigarettes, the use of
alcohol and the sale of pork. Women who don’t cover up get pawed, or worse,
raped. The problem isn’t intolerance. It’s the multiculturalist socialist
paradise that the entire European Union affords Muslim immigrants.

As a result, welfare is abused by
Muslims across Europe — some 80% of Muslim immigrants to Europe are on the
dole, and more than half are “economically inactive.” Muslims claim disability
more than any other group.

In the EU capital of Belgium, as well
as neighboring Netherlands, Muslims are roughly 5% of the population yet
consume 40% to 60% of the welfare budget. Belgium spends more on unemployment
benefits than any other country outside Denmark.

European society isn’t oppressing
Muslim immigrants. Far from it. It’s coddling them, providing them a
comfortable living. And they return the favor by disemboweling their gracious
hosts.

A radical Islamic group that recruited
youngsters to fight in Syria was a terrorist organisation that wanted to
overthrow democracy and impose sharia law, a Belgian court has ruled after the
largest trial of its kind in Europe.

The court in Antwerp sentenced the
Sharia4Belgium group’s leader Fouad Belkacem to 12 years’ imprisonment and gave
dozens of other members lesser sentences. Belkacem, who was led into court in
handcuffs by police in body armour, smiled as he listened to the judgment.

Other senior leaders of the group were
sentenced to 15 years because judges said that, unlike Belkacem who had
remained in Belgium, they were actively involved in terrorism in Syria.

Jailed Muslim thugs of Sharia4Belgium.

The verdicts came in one of Belgium’s
biggest-ever terror trials in which 46 people were originally accused, although
only seven appeared in court. Others are believed to be fighting with Sunni
armed groups in Syria or to have died in its civil war.

In a written judgment, Judge Luc
Potargent said that Sharia4Belgium wanted a “totalitarian” Islamic state in
which “there is no freedom, no human rights, no place for personal development,
science or culture. Their state is based on violence and fear.” He added: “It
is clear that Belkacem... prepared young people physically and psychologically
for armed combat.”

Belkacem, born in a small town between
Antwerp and Brussels, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 for his
part in a large drug-smuggling ring. An appeal is still pending before a
Brussels court.

Members of Sharia4Belgium not only went
to fight with al-Qaeda’s Syria wing, Jabhat al-Nusra, and organisations which
later developed into Isis in Syria, but also went to Yemen, the judge said.

“The law doesn’t state that terrorist
attacks already have to be carried out to qualify a group as a terrorist
organisation. They only have to have the intention to one day carry out such
attacks,” he added.

Much of the prosecution case relied on
the testimony of 20-year-old Jejoen Bontinck, a member of Sharia4Belgium who
made national headlines when his father went to Syria to convince him to
return. Bontinck was given a 40-month suspended sentence, less than the four
years recommended by prosecutors, after he gave evidence against his former
fellow fighters.

Clamping down on the Sharia4Belgium network, which was disbanded more
than two years ago, appears to have done little to rein in Islamic extremists
in the country. Police have carried out a string of raids and arrests this year
since a gun fight with suspected Islamic terrorists in the eastern industrial
town of Verviers, shortly after the Paris terror attacks last month.

Belgian police said the Verviers
operation, which left two suspected extremists dead, foiled an imminent terror
attack. In the aftermath of the raid, paratroopers were sent onto the streets
to help police maintain security and Belgium raised the level of its terror
threat warning.

Dimitri Bontinck, the father of Jejoen
Bontinck, warned the trial could only fuel unrest. “This verdict could create
more hate and frustration,” he said.